Forum Discussion
Black screen intermitently occurs
Windows 11 black screen with message "user\myname\appdata\local\pdftool\node.exe
windows cannotaccess the specified device path or file
you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item"
this occurs at various times doing various tasks. X out and am fine until the next time
1 Reply
Hi, the important clue is the path in the message: `AppData\Local\pdftool\node.exe`.
That does not sound like a normal Windows component. It is probably a broken PDF utility, updater, startup task, or something unwanted trying to run in the background. I would check Settings > Apps > Startup, Task Manager > Startup apps, and Task Scheduler for anything related to `pdftool` or `node.exe`.
After that, run a full Microsoft Defender scan, and if you do not recognize the app, uninstall it or remove the startup entry. Sysinternals Autoruns is also very good for finding the exact launch point. I would not ignore this one, because a random executable in AppData trying to launch repeatedly is worth cleaning up even if closing the message lets you continue working.
